Roadmap Initiatives

The NIA participates in the support of the following Roadmap initiatives funded through the NIH Common Fund:

Interdisciplinary Research Consortium

Using Metabolomics to Investigate Biological Pathways and Networks

Supplements for Methodological Innovations – Behavioral and Social Science

Recovery Act Implementation
Recovery Act Funding: $273.303 million

In FY 2009, the National Institute on Aging received $273.3 million under the Recovery Act. Of this amount, $149.4 million was obligated in FY 2009 and $123.9 million will be obligated in FY 2010. These funds currently support approximately 400 active research projects, including some 40 challenge grants and 23 “Grand Opportunity” projects, as well as recruitment of seven emerging researchers into tenure-track university positions. NIA has also participated in several NIH-wide ARRA initiatives with job creation as a major focus, including a program to provide paid “summer research experiences” to students, teachers at all levels, and faculty from non-research intensive institutions; in 2009, NIA was able to place students and teachers in 48 NIH-supported laboratories.

NIA-supported investigators have received Recovery Act funds to support new and ongoing studies in Alzheimer’s disease to identify additional risk factor genes, improve diagnostic tools, identify biomarkers, develop therapies and preventive measures, and conduct clinical trials. ARRA-supported investigators are also working to determine the potential healthy aging effects of the compound rapamycin, and to understand the causes of protein misfolding—when a protein is either not formed correctly or damaged afterwards—that lead to age-related disease. The Lifestyle Interventions and Independence for Elders trial, the largest ever undertaken to prevent mobility disability among older people who are at risk, is now underway with ARRA support, and four ARRA awards have been made to expand the long-running Health and Retirement Study, including the enrollment of approximately 3000 African American and Hispanic participants.